Rigus, Gatetown to Acheron
Like a giant iron boil rising up upon the flesh of the Land, the gatetown of Rigus, the Eight-Tiered City, exists as more of a permanent military encampment than a proper city in many ways. Unlike the vast majority of the other gatetowns, it lacks a true civilian population outside of its own regimented military orders, and it seems to largely exist as a marshalling point for the mortal and immortal mercenaries, swarming lawful bacteria, who feed and feed upon the perpetual war of Acheron, and to a lesser extent the lawful side of the Blood War.
From a distance, Rigus looks like a series of stacked metal boxes, or a giant monochrome ziggurat rising above the surrounding landscape in all of its unwelcoming glory. Approaching travels will note that in following that “unwelcoming” aura, the lowest, outermost defensive wall of Rigus is constructed of black avalan iron, splotched and mottled with rust, verdigris, and a sticky, almost sap-like coating of contact poison to ward off rust-monsters and potential invaders.
Only a single and heavily guarded gate opens into the city, and traffic to and from is searched, questioned, and regulated with military efficiency. The city is harsh about what sort of people are allowed entry, but those seeking to enter with a legitimate reason of trade, travel to Acheron, business with a citizen of Rigus, or those seeking to become citizens themselves are allowed. But regardless of the reason, visitors are required to wear badges of identification: heavy slate plaques hung around the neck by iron chains. The plaques, while uncomfortable, afford visitors a partial immunity to the laws of Rigus, protecting them from any retribution for unknowing violations of the city’s strictures, and letting them progress through the levels of the gatetown largely unmolested. Be that as it may, blatant violations of the rules or even disrespect to high-ranking citizens can cause the plaque and its benefits to be stripped, leaving one open to the full sway of the law and even sanctioned retribution.
As a city, Rigus is as organized and structured in design as any military organization. Like any top-down hierarchy, the lowest tiers hold the least power but are also the largest, and Rigus is no different. The city is constructed in a series of seven tiered rings each stacked one on top of the other rising up the flanks of the hill, with the lowest ring the largest, and the highest ring situated at the summit, also known as the Crown, being the smallest. An octagonal iron wall separates each ring from one another, and access to the next highest ring is controlled by several gates on the level, guarded and regulated by one or more of the military orders that control the city.
Beneath the military orders, either as members or subjects, the population of Rigus is given ranks to show their place in society. Everyone starts as a ‘citizen’, including newborns or newly settled travelers. Promotions go up to private, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, or general. Lawbreakers and captives can be demoted to ‘slave-soldier’. People follow the orders of the higher ranks without question, and they stick to the letter of the law. Disobedience is treason, and frequently leads to public execution or simply vanishing into Acheron to worse fates.
The twelve military orders of Rigus collectively comprise the city’s rulership, though there have always been rumors that some of them answer in turn to higher, external powers and influences such as the decree of factions, sects, gods, or the whispers of the dead. But none of that alters their very stern and demonstrative impact upon the lives of the citizens of Rigus who either serve them directly as members, or remain independent in loyalty but still obey them as subjects.
In loosely descending order of current influence within the eight-tiered city, the orders are:
Brotherhood of the Toll of Doom
Ruled by General Thad Direwrack [LN male dwarf, F 10, Sodkiller], the Brotherhood of the Toll of Doom has held the reigns of power in Rigus for close to three centuries, and shows no signs of weakness even as they have been forced to regroup following the deaths of Factol Mallin of the Mercykillers and the disappearance of Factol Nilesia. Of more direct impact though is their transition from under the leadership of General Nagaro, who while tacitly retaining her power in Rigus has moved to Sigil as the Guildmaster of the Minders Guild, where she also now sits second in line for leadership of the Sodkillers.
Children of the Thunder
Serving under the banner of a drum and lightning bolt, the order was formed two centuries earlier by a cleric of Kai Lung, Chinese power of justice and punishment. While the influence of the clergy on them currently is debatable, the ideology of the Thunderer has lingered within their ranks.
Brood of Choirosis
With the Great Rust Wyrm of Marsallin emblazoned upon their standard, the Brood of Choirosis answers to and serves the interests of their rust dragon patron within Rigus, and in turn are influenced by the Sodkillers due to the wyrm’s own loyalties to that faction.
Maglubiyet’s Children
Populated almost entirely by goblins and hobgoblins, as befits their name, this particular order has been incredibly low key in their playing of Rigus’s politics in the past seventy years. Before that point they were engaged in merciless competition against the One-Eyed Horde, a former military legion loyal to Gruumsch, a competition that frequently erupted into all-out urban warfare as the racial and religious tensions flared. But then, in the space of a single night, with no warning given beforehand, the Horde was obliterated to the last man, and the next morning saw the spikes of Rigus’s walls decorated with the heads of each member of the city’s predominantly orcish order. Supposedly a message was sent to the general of Maglubiyet’s Children, penned upon the flayed and tanned skin of the Horde’s general, stating that ‘Such disturbances will not be tolerated within the walls of Rigus. The Dead have spoken, and it is your choice now if you will listen to our judgement or not. Know your place within this city.’
The Hellforged Legion
Marked by their standard of reddish flames overset by a pair of yellow eyes and a purple tongue, the Hellforged Legion is marked by a number of overtly Baatefic practices and styles. With a propensity for taking names in Infernal after joining the order, and using hellhounds in their patrols, the Legion has oftentimes been linked to, and just as often denied the support and guidance of the exiled noble Baatezu Kochbiel. Be that as it may, the group has rapidly gained in power in the past decade.
The other military orders are no less colorful, including the Order of the Ninefold (ruled by a man said to be a disguised Rakshasa), the Brotherhood of the Undying-Naga (marked by a standard of a bone naga), Heirs of the Mazed Paragon (seeking to reestablish their own interpretation of the dogma of the long-dead Expansionists), The Zindalan (ruled by a Khaasta slave trader), The Scions of the Prime (ruled by a warlord from the prime material), and the Unbreathing Legion (composed entirely of petitioners to Acheron).
Faction influence within Rigus is nominally unofficial, with true rule being reserved to the various military orders, and any faction affiliation being strictly divorced from their actions and loyalties. Of the factions, only the Xaositects and the Anarchists are officially banned, though members of the Indeps and some of the splinters of the Doomguard might do well to hide their affiliations.
But while the other factions face no official sanction or discrimination, and they’re free to seek converts and peddle their ideology, their true influence is but a fraction of the singularly monolithic influence of the Sodkillers.
Broken Slate
The vast majority of the alehouses, hostels, and brothels within Rigus are owned and operated by the military orders, less independent places of business than they are gathering points for their members and tools of persuasion for potential recruits. As such, outsiders to Rigus are greeted coldly and with suspicion, or find themselves subject to the attention of overly friendly recruiters, and occasionally the risk of being pressganged into service.
Alone among the city’s taverns however, the Broken Slate is independently owned and operated by Zelric Kaarizol [male half-orc F12], a former mercenary with a career that stretched from Acheron to the prime material to darkest depths of the Blood War. His last contract in the War Eternal left him on the wrong end of a betrayal by yugoloths loyal to the archfiend Typhus, and also left him blind in one eye and the sole survivor of his company. The experience turned him off from the risk of such work, and with a desire to provide at least a slight bit of shelter, however momentary, for those seeking fortune and glory where he found the same, albeit it bittersweet.
Tylissa’s Tower
The tower, both the residence and place of business, of the wizardress Tylissa rises high above the 6th ring of the city, nearly reaching above the height of many of the buildings within the next ring itself. Though the tower is generally plain in style, remarkable only for the greenish glass cupola at its top, its primary resident is anything but mundane.
Tylissa [female tiefling transmuter 14] is certainly a striking figure: a slim woman of indeterminate years with eyes like liquid, lavender tinged mercury, and hair that resembles nothing so much as verdigris stained copper. The woman's past is a mixture of speculation and rumor, and she does little to clarify the matter, seeming to revel in the swirl of speculation that surrounds her, her past, and even the question of just what race or mixture of races she actually is, given her appearance.
Adding to the speculation, there is also the fact that the tower itself is several thousand years old. While Tylissa has only occupied it for a quarter century, the tower was vacant and magically sealed for two centuries previous to that after the departure of its owner, curiously enough a female wizard named Tylissa. To all appearances it seemed that she'd simply walked back into Rigus and reclaimed her former abode after two centuries of preoccupation elsewhere, and because of this history, many suspect her to be a shapechanged fiend, a disguised lich, a half-breed of human and hassitor, or even a surviving member of the Incantifers.
Whether the truth is anything that exotic is an open question, but beyond that mystery, Tylissa has tended to stay wholly clear of the politics of the city, openly offering her services as a spellcaster to any who can afford her prices, which tend to be steep, and oftentimes unconventional.
Belltower of the Toll of Doom
The headquarters of Rigus's most powerful military order sprawls around the city’s tallest structure, the Belltower of the Toll of Doom. In line with its name, a massive bronze bell hangs within the tower, but close examination reveals that it lack any pull, a clapper, or any other mechanism to ring. Despite this however, the bell, or something within the tower, does in fact ring on specific days of importance to the Toll of Doom. The bell is felt before it is heard, a low and building reverberation that rattles the bones of the chest before reaching the ears with a rolling concussion audible for miles around the gatetown.
Branching out from the tower are a series of barracks, meeting halls, training grounds and administrative buildings belonging to the Brotherhood of the Toll of Doom. A solid third of the brotherhood are typically in residence, another third on patrol, and the final fraction away from the city in Acheron or elsewhere. But the machinations of the Brotherhood itself are not the distinctive feature of the location, and most of the true moving and shaking among the city’s political intrigue occurs on the streets, or within the so-called Crypt. No. The most extensive whispers about the belltower center around the bell itself.
Some claim that the bell was plundered from an ancient incarnation of Plague-Mort, at the time heavily influenced by the Abyssal Lord Baphomet. If so, the bell may be kindred to the artifacts known as the Bells of Baphomet that currently hang within the steeple of Sigil’s Temple of the Abyss. This of course raises the possibility that the Toll of Doom has control over a similar magic possessed by those other bells, though there are no legends surrounding them, so the order may either be unwilling or unaware of such power, assuming it exists.
Temple of the Half-Brothers
One of the largest buildings in Rigus, situated over and astride the primary gate between the 4th and 5th rings, the temple shares a common plaza (with security strictly enforced) with twin cathedrals branching off to either side, each catering to the worship of Hextor, god of tyranny, and Heironious, god of valor. The temple is unique in its split structure, and a careful examination of the architecture reveals the truth about its origins as a single larger cathedral later divided and split in two.
The original temple was consecrated to Stratis, the LN deity of war, brother of both Hextor and Heironeous. But following his death, supposedly at the hands of mortals, and the collapse of his priesthood, the location was defiled, and occupied by squatters for several decades before the competing clergies of his brothers seized it in an attempt to keep it out of the hands of the other. Several years later, and after a significant level of bloodshed, the current peace and division between the temples was set down by the edict of Brannus Dirishek, then Factol of the Mercykillers, and has remained so till the present day.
The so-called ‘Iron Patriarch of Rigus’, Cierith Bloodwyn [LE male human Clr14 of Hextor], controls his clergy and followers with rigid authority, though the man seems hesitant about seeking to influence the orders, given that of his two predecessors, one was assassinated and the other was executed after seeking to do just that. With that ample warning from the pages of history, rather than risk his own neck before having the power to do so, he seems content for the moment to stymie the influence of his clerical rivals.
Standing opposite in both position and ideology to the temple of Hextor, Elonorus the Honored [LG female aasimar Clr11/Div Disc 3 of Heironeous] leads the clergy of Heironeous in spreading a gospel of glory and justice by personal action and the upholding of societal order. Blunting her opposite’s interests in Rigus are perhaps less an interest to Heironeous’s high priest within the divided temple, as her activities have been more to funnel information and bits of intrigue out of Rigus and into Sigil to the waiting ears of Arwyl Swanson. Publicly known or not, Elonorus holds the position and title of Factor within the Sons of Mercy, and her sights are set not on Rigus but on the planes at large.
The Crypt
While the highest ring and the summit of the hill that Rigus is built upon is termed 'the crown', the grandiose mausoleum that resides there, known as 'The Crypt', is oftentimes synonymous with 'the Crown', depending on context. Situated within an open paved plaza, the crypt is carved from the raw bedrock of the mountain itself, though the original stonemasons gave it the cosmetic appearance of having been fashioned through more conventional construction techniques.
Officially the Crypt is nothing more than a memorial and resting place to the most honored dead of Rigus: past generals of the military orders, factols of the Mercykillers and Sodkillers, and other great heroes whose remains are forever interred within to remain in an elevated position of glorified remembrance by the living who choose to honor them so.
In reality however, the military orders don't select the occupants of the crypt, they answer to them. By some unique process, or perhaps as some trait of Rigus or the Crypt itself, the dead entombed within the Crypt are isolated from the normal processes of death and the subsequent formation of a petitioner. The souls of the dead linger on in a lich-like state of undead quasi-life, ruling from beyond the grave as a spectral council that orchestrates the highest level decisions that occur in Rigus and even beyond, given the number of highups in Rigus who populate the ranks of the Sodkillers.
The Soldier’s Gate
The first impression most cutters have of Rigus is the main gate into the city, known traditionally as ‘The Soldier’s Gate’, given that most entrants to the city are ultimately bound for the eternal battlefield of Acheron.
Wide enough to admit fifteen men marching abreast, the gate is the most heavily guarded location in Rigus, and the admissions process is invasive and severe enough to discourage any thoughts of unlawful behavior once admitted into the gatetown proper. The gate is manned by soldiers from no fewer than four of the city's military orders, a measure intended to prevent smuggling or other forms of corruption if only one order provided security without being observed and counterbalanced.
The gate, nine inches think and hard as adamantite, was fashioned from a single piece of magic-dead metal, said to have been the result of some ancient and heretical forgemaster loyal to Diinkarizan the mad derro creator-deity, or alternately carved from the petrified bones of some ancient denizen of Thuldanin. Whatever the origin though, the gate soaks up magic with a gusto to put a hunger frenzied Nishruu to shame, giving its guardians no fear from the battle magic of any potential invaders seeking to breach the only entrance to the city.
The Gate
From the summit of the Crown, a thirty-foot wide, mile long staircase descends deep under the city, leading into a massive natural cavern that echoes with the ringing, discordant sound of metal on metal. Standing in the echoing darkness in the center of the chamber stands the Lion's Gate, the source of the noise, and the permanent portal from Rigus to Acheron's first layer of Avalas.
The gate takes the form of a freestanding arch of bariaur bones that encloses a swirling mass of sickly, greenish-yellow light, striped down the center with a pitch black band making the portal seem nothing-so-much as a the giant eye of some massive beast. Access to the gate itself is unrestricted, but records are kept regarding who or what passes into or out of Acheron.
Outside of the flickering light given off by the gate, the cavern rapidly slips away into shadow, and a number of various other passages lead away into the depths. While some of these other tunnels are natural, others appear to have been intentionally cut from the rock, both into and out of the cavern from various directions. The expansive tunnel network is largely unmapped, but rumors claim that they lead to other portals, to various deific domains including those of Illsensine and Gzemnid, or a planar underdark beneath portions of the Land. Additionally, due to semi-frequent incursions of hostile creatures from the depths, including gauth and giant, blind insects, a number of the passages have in recent years been walled up or gated to prevent easy entrance or egress.
Plots and Rumors
Though distant from Rigus and controlling other affairs in Sigil, General Nagaro of the Brotherhood of the Toll of Doom has been sending missives back and forth between herself and the higher-ranking generals of Rigus with increasing frequency. The exact nature of these communications is unknown, but rumors have her seeking to curry support in the gatetown and elsewhere, leading up to a possible attempt by herself to seize control of the Sodkillers from its current factol Nijul P’iuy. On the other hand it might be a complete smokescreen for attempts to flush out into the open any citizens of the gatetown who hold loyalty to the Sons of Mercy, the Order of the Planes Militant, or other groups whose influence is unwelcomed by the leadership of the Sodkillers.
Though they exist as one of the less powerful military orders of Rigus, the members of the Heirs of the Mazed Paragon are rumored to have something large planned for the future. There are whispers that their namesake, the first and only Factol of the Expansionists, Vartus Timlin, is alive and free of his imprisonment by the Lady of Pain. If Timlin were to join the order, their prestige would skyrocket and they would immediately by a new power within the city, and even beyond given the unshackled ambition of the wielder of Lightbringer.
There are rumors that a number of full-blooded Baatezu have recently visited a number of the generals of Rigus, and contrary to expectations they seemed entirely disinterested in the Hellbound Legion and the swirl of rumors that generally surround them and their supposed diabolic patron. Instead, the fiends, all representatives of the Ministry of Mortal Relations under Furcas, are said to be seeking to influence the powers that be in Rigus, while likewise doing so in Torch, hoping to isolate Baator’s gatetown of Ribcage from local trade routes as a measure of punishment against the rulers of that city. Other rumors suggest that they also have been seeking to gauge the ambitions and interest of the most powerful military orders of Rigus in actively invading and laying siege to Ribcage. Apparently the Baatezu are none too pleased with their lack of control over their own Outlands gatetown, and see Ribcage’s soldier-lords as being more amenable to their whims, if prompted with the right rewards and initial reasons.
Herself a subject of much rumor and conjecture, the wizardress Tylissa has been seen making a number of repeated visits to the Crypt atop the highest circle of the city. Each time she has gone alone, without escort by soldiers of any of the orders, and she has left with a sometimes confused, sometimes thoughtful expression upon her face, rather than the fear or resolve that so typically marks those who have faced the presence of the spectral rulers of Rigus. Perhaps her own personal power and extreme age allows her to treat the dead as peers when she is summoned, but others have suggested that Tylissa has gone to the Crypt to ask something of them, rather than the other way around. She may be seeking answers on some topic, and suppressed whispers suggest that Tylissa is not in actuality the original Tylissa who created the tower, and she has spoken to the members of the Crypt for answers or advice as she has gone about unraveling some mystery of her own tower as she comes to terms with the legacy left behind by her namesake.
Among the many merchants selling weapons, armor, and magical objects both taken as spoils from the wars of Acheron, or sold to arm and equip those making their way to those battles seeking glory, of late a number of bizarre objects have turned up for sale. While the petrified, partially iron, partially stone, objects of Acheron’s second layer are relatively well recognized and form a small but valued fraction of the flow of trade from Acheron, similar items have appeared of late but which show no signs of being from Acheron. These objects, a scattered number of ancient weapons and uncategorized things of war, they all appear linked to the Outlands and show no particular draw towards Acheron.
An Efreeti merchant who claimed he purchased them from an agent of an unknown seller initially offered them, but they have also begun to appear in the hands of other sellers of magical items. There are some suggestions that the objects were in fact mined from tunnels and wells sunk deep into the bedrock of the hill that Rigus occupies, which itself leads to the suggestion that the city was at some point in the extreme past built upon the weathered remnants of a shard of a cube from Acheron’s second or third layer that passed through the gate and embedded itself in the Outlands. If so, the city might sit upon a treasure trove of half-petrified objects of war, and because of this, the military orders have been scrambling to determine the true source of the items, and the identity of the seller.
(This one is a Shemmy Special - so hopefully you folks will give us some feedback for future development ... 
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